About

About This Site

In broad terms theinquiry.ca is about Church authorities, politicians, law enforcement officials, lawyers and judges who collectively turn a blind eye to paedophiles, willfully place children at risk, and are indifferent to the plight of male victims of same-sex sexual abuse. In other words, broadly speaking theinquiry.ca is about the value we as a society place on the protection, well-being and security of our most precious asset, or children.

More specifically, but within those broad parameters, theinquiry.ca is about the public and highly controversial inquiry into allegations of sex abuse, a paedophile ring and a cover-up which have rocked the community of Cornwall, Ontario and the small Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall for thirteen years.

The inquiry started with the calling of expert witnesses 13 February 2006.

This website will post background information, letters and documents related to the inquiry and the real and perceived conflicts surrounding Mr. Justice Normand Glaude, the controversial judge commissioned to head the inquiry.

That material will be put into perspective with postings regarding the Cornwall scandal.

As the inquiry proceeds further information will be added and relevant questions will be raised regarding witnesses, testimony and rulings.

I am blogging my way through the Cornwall Public Inquiry at Sylvia’s Site.

“Cornwall” has become accepted parlance for the allegations of sex abuse, a paedophile ring and cover-up which have rocked the city of Cornwall, Ontario and the Roman Catholic diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall for the past thirteen years.

“The inquiry” is the Cornwall inquiry, also referred to as the Cornwall Public Inquiry, a reluctant offering of the Ontario provincial Liberal government to the persistent demands of sex abuse victims, their families and other concerned citizens for truth and justice in Cornwall. True, there are other inquiries of note in Canada, but in Cornwall there is one, and only one, which is guaranteed to impact

“Paedophile” is the term most commonly and consistently used by the general public to describe all men who sexually molest children. For most it matters not what the experts say, nor do they know or care about the burgeoning classifications and increasingly tolerant and hair-splitting distinctions of what constitutes a paedophile. Indeed, most are unaware of the growing and alarmingly paedophile-friendly movement to reduce the age of consent (now 14 in Canada!) and the equally alarming and growing tolerance and brash advocacy of “man-boy love” (pederasty), and the concerted effort in many quarters to classify peadophilia as a “sexual orientation.” In short, for the average person the sexual abuse of any child

The same holds true in Cornwall.

However, some hair-splitting aside, the majority, if not all of the sexual predators central to the Cornwall scandal are men who are pederasts or homosexual paedophiles.

That said, I will generally stay the familiar course on this site and use the term paedophiles, but I do so with the understanding that, unless otherwise stated, the Cornwall victims of whom I speak are men who were homosexually molested.

One final and important point with regard to paedophiles, a ring, cover-up and the inquiry in Cornwall: the referenced paedophiles – and, yes, “alleged” paedophiles – are with few exceptions those (a) identified by former Constable Dunlop, (b) charged or investigated through the police probe known as Project Truth, (c) named in the hushed multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement orchestrated by the Ontario office of the Solicitor General, (d) affiliated with the group alternately referenced as “the ring” or “the clan,” (e) functioning as clergy or staff in the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall, and (f) named in the settlement orchestrated with the Viatorians (les Clercs de St-Viateur) an order of Roman Catholic priests which operated the now defunct Classical College in the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall.

Those are the paedophiles and “alleged” paedophiles at the heart of the scandal and cover-up. It is the sex abuse and cover-up allegations surrounding these men, their actions and the actions of others on their behalf which must be investigated by the inquiry. That is why the inquiry was called.

Perry Dunlop: Former Constable Perry Dunlop‘blew the whistle’ when he inadvertently discovered that his own police force, the Cornwall Police Service, had ceased investigating sexual abuse allegations against a local priest, Father Charles MacDonald, and a local probation officer, Ken Seguin.

His discovery and subsequent actions led to exposure of a $32,000 hush settlement and an illegal gag order. The Cornwall scandal mushroomed from there.

For his efforts to protect children Dunlop was charged by the Cornwall Police Service under the Police Services Act. He was eventually exonerated.

Through his persistent efforts to protect children he sacrificed his chosen career, endured death threats to himself and his daughter (then all of six-years-old), was forced to sell his home and relocate his family, was vilified and demeaned by various Crown attorneys, defence lawyers , judges and journalists, and was ridiculed and scorned by a goodly number of Roman Catholics who, through ignorance or otherwise, rallied to the defense of suspect clergy and bishops.

Project Truth: Due to the publicity surrounding the hush settlement, and lacking anywhere else to turn, male sex abuse victims began to contact Dunlop with sex abuse allegations against prominent men in the community.

When it became apparent that law enforcement officials were not pursuing the allegations and appeared to have no intention of charging Father MacDonald, Dunlop and a group of citizens pursued the leads themselves, some travelling as far as Fort Lauderdale, Florida to confirm or refute allegations that members of a paedophile “clan” frequented a seedy area of that city where they routinely engaged in sexual activity with young boys.

In time the group concluded there was something bigger happening in Cornwall.

Mounting public pressure and Dunlop’s persistence obliged the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to strike a probe to investigate the allegations.

The probe was dubbed Project Truth.

Fifteen men eventually faced a total of 114 or 115 charges. Some were men named by Dunlop, others were not. One of those charged was Father Charles MacDonald. Of the 15 charged, one entered a guilty plea, the others either died before standing trial or, for a variety of reasons, as we laymen say, “walked,” Father MacDonald included. A number of other alleged paedophiles have never been charged.

“Alleged” paedophiles and “alleged” victims of Cornwall: We aren’t allowed to talk about real paedophiles of Cornwall. Indeed, barring the rare case of a guilty plea or ruling, and despite the out-of-court settlements, many would have us believe there are no paedophiles in Cornwall. However, we can talk of “alleged” paedophiles when referring to the host of men who have Charter (Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms) rights falling out their ears, enjoy the sympathy of the court and, as we are so frequently reminded, also enjoy the “presumption of innocence.”

There also limits on the use of the word “victim” in conjunction with sex abuse in Cornwall. Victim denotes a corresponding paedophile, and, of course, barring the rare exception, we must believe that there are no paedophiles. We can, however, talk of “alleged” victims when referring to the host of men who almost to a man portray the stereotypical signs of same-sex sexual abuse, have no Charter rights, do not enjoy the sympathy of the court and, as things have unfolded to date, shoulder the burden of being perceived as liars within their community.

Therefore, despite seeing many of the victims on the witness stand, hearing their testimony, and observing what passed for justice in Cornwall, I reluctantly but of necessity will endeavour to use the cumbersome “alleged” when referencing those suspect paedophiles who have not been found guilty in a court of law.

Background

Knowledge of what happened in Cornwall for the past fourteen years is imperative for those who hope to understand what the inquiry is about and why it is viewed by many as the final chapter in the cover-up. Theinquiry.ca will therefore attempt to provide information about Cornwall. To that end, articles, documents and commentary related to the scandal and cover-up will be posted, as will information about the Project Truth trials, trials of those men charged under Project Truth which are viewed by many as both a travesty of justice and a frightening insight into a judiciary which is party to the cover-up and indifferent to paedophilia, particularly when it involves the sexual abuse of young boys.

Readers can get a brief overview of the scandal by reading The Unpurged Evil in the Diocese of Alexandria-Cornwall(link at top of page). The article was published in 1999 while I was editor of The Orator, a periodical published by a group of Ottawa-based Roman Catholic volunteers anxious to address the problems besetting our beloved Church.

Also check “The Scandal” for lists of those charged under Project Truth, and the click on the blue drop down menu on The Diocese page for a listing and information on clergy charged, sued or accused to date.

For those interested in more detail, Anatomy of a Cover-up provides a chronology of events as they initially unfolded in the early days of the scandal, mostly through media reports. Small excerpts and quotes from each article are included.

The Lawsuit ( on The Scandal page) provides documents as appendices which provide further information. The suit was launched by the former bishop of the Alexandria-Cornwall diocese, Eugene Larocque, and several Roman Catholic priests of that diocese against former website operators James Bateman and Dick Nadeau, The Wanderer (a U.S.-based Roman Catholic weekly) and others. The redactions in the documents were placed there by the lawyers filing the action.

Your host

I am new to ups and downs and ins and outs of website design. Please bear with me. And check back regularly for new postings and commentary on the inquiry. There is a vast amount of information which needs to get out into the public domain – information which must be scanned, and documents which must be rounded up. It will take time.

Also, I must tell you that I am a practising Roman Catholic. I write and express myself in that vein.

I am aware that many Roman Catholics in Cornwall believe that uttering the word Catholic in the same breath as sexual abuse and scandal denotes anti-Catholic sentiments. I disagree. The truth of the matter is that the majority, if not all, the “alleged” paedophiles connected to the allegations of a paedophile rng and cover-up are Roman Catholic and a number are clergy. It would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.

[Please note:

June 2014: As a result of the goings on throughout the Cornwall Public Inquiry I have ceased referring to any sexual predators as paedophiles. I now refer to them all as “molesters” – any other categorization seems to cause nothing but endless quibbling and problems over definitions, and ages of the victims.]

This site is being rebuilt. Please bear with me. All previous articles, documents and links will eventually be re-posted.